Yippee!! It's Summer ...

Yippeeee, it's time for one of my favorite season of all times "summer". Summer always brings in loads of cute memories to all of us and for me it brings a whole new world. It reminds me exams, long walks to my school on the road filled with trees on both sides and those trees spreading a beautiful aroma, my unscheduled cricket matches, raw mango, sweat, early morning alarms to study, summer holidays etc etc. I been born and brought up in Chennai, all I know was hot, hotter and hottest types of Summer and hence there is no way I can crib on heat or sweat and surprisingly, I love sweating like a pig. During the times of my good old cricketing days, I wud be the only person, who refuses to wear a wrist band which is primarily used to wipe the sweat, I love when sweat trickles from my forehead on to my cheeks...

Summer is the time where one can do anything they want, if they are not so bothered about the heat, and for folks like me, studying is the next worst thing to committing suicide, I for some reason did not like my school days just for the fact that I have to study. I was never an outstanding student during my academics and I don't want to put the blame on my school or the teachers, it's me who did not have any interest towards studies. The one thing I loved the most is those long walks to my school is the walk I take back home in the evening, , my school was / is located in a place which is surrounded by trees on both sides and one of my prime activity is to collect the flowers that tree sheds, that flower wud be very aromatic and if you keep it between the pages of your textbook, it will add a whole new scent to my school bag which is full of dust and dirt. Summer is the time for butterflies, and my school had plenty of them and I wud have collected (killed) 100s of them and placed them inside my notebooks.

I never had an opportunity to visit any relatives place for summer holidays, it is just me and my imaginary games all the time, I was not allowed to go out and play with other street kids, as my family felt that I may corrupt them ;))). I never throw any tantrums for that, I will be busy in my own world and summer is the time I invent lots of games which can be played only by me and all it needs it only one player. Summer evenings are wonderful, that's when I was allowed to take bath twice a day and in my Chennai house, I have an open terrace and in the morning my granny would fill a drum full of water and at the time of sun set, that drum of water would be lukewarm and I just jump inside that drum and take a holy dip. Summer comes along with power cuts (even in Chennai), and when there is a power cut in the night, my joy doubles, because, all my friends will be on the road and playing hide and seek in that darkness is total fun.

The best part of enjoyment during summer is when the sale of raw mangoes start, who will not like a raw mango in this world and I am no exception to that. Though I hate eating mango as a fruit (I can’t even stand that smell), I love the raw ones. In Chennai we make something called "Maavadu" which is made out of tiny raw mangoes which were the first and early indications of summer setting in. The way my granny prepares that "Maavadu" is out of this world, and I being a crazy liker of that, I got the entire procedure of how to make that from her and this year I am doing to prepare "Maavadu". No side dish can even come near "Maavadu" for curd rice; in fact mango makes summer very special to me. The quite afternoons of summer are a good time to take a power nap and I was staying in a street house in Chennai and occasionally you will hear some street vendor screaming on top of his throat to sell something in that hot sun, whether I buy anything from him or not, I used to open the door and ask him if he needs water, we used to keep a mud pot in the staircase and anyone who asks for water, we will serve them with CHILL pot water.

Today I am working in a closed AC office, but summer's are cruel for folks who spend their time outside and fry themselves in that hot sun. We still see traffic police men, gas cylinder vendors, medical representatives, post man, sales girls, ice-cream vendor braving the sun and doing service to this society, so let’s give them a smiling face and we need not buy anything from them, at least let’s give them some water and make them happy naa. I may have grown up now to venture out and play with other kids, but I still enjoy summer as my childhood summers are still fresh in my memory and I cherish them a lot. As usually, I am having a big list of to-do things for this summer and the first one which tops that list is to learn "Yoga" and the next one is not so tough to guess, yeah, join a "Cricket Coaching Center". Let’s welcome summer once again and of course wait for raw mangoes.